FLEET SPURS 1, BADSHOT LEA 4

A TENTH consecutive league victory lifted Badshot Lea to fourth in the Combined Counties Division One, with games in hand on all three teams above them.

It’s a remarkable winning sequence by any standard, but manager Mark Thomas refuses to get carried away. “I’ve never spoken to the chairman about promotion,” he said. “We’ll take each game as it comes and see where it takes us.”

Thomas resigned for family reasons – his wife was pregnant – more than two years ago after a highly successful first spell as Baggies manager.

“I’d done my time and I never really thought about managing again,” he told the Herald. Then, out of the blue, he got a call from Mark Broad, the club chairman, enquiring about his availability.

“I needed 24 hours to think about it because the job does affect your family life. My wife was happy for me to go back. She knows the people at Badshot Lea – that made a difference.

Another factor was Badshot Lea’s move to a new home at Wrecclesham – scheduled for later this year. “It would be nice to be part of a little bit of history, admitted Thomas.

He took over in October, with the Baggies at a low ebb after the resignation of Michael Charles. “I still had good contacts in football – players who are good friends, not just football friends, and they rallied around.”

The result was an almost completely rebuilt side which promptly clicked on the field and began the surge up the table which now makes an immediate return to the Premier Division a realistic possibility.

But the manager was not too pleased with how his side started last Friday’s match at Fleet Spurs’ Kennels Lane ground.

“We lacked discipline and organisation and Fleet were the better side for 20 minutes. Their goal was the kick up the backside we needed and in the space of eight minutes we were two-one up. We looked very comfortable in the second half.”

Just after the half-hour mark, skipper Tom Chillery cleverly volleyed a cross over keeper Ashley West, and Spurs were in front.

But the lead didn’t last long as, seven minutes later, Ben Hutchings skilfully chipped Mark Appleby from just outside the box.

Three minutes before the break, Hutchings got his second and put the Baggies in front. Appleby did well to stop Hutchings’ powerful drive, but the ball fell kindly for the Baggies man who crashed home an unstoppable left-foot drive.

The visitors doubled their lead soon after the break. Fleet failed to close down Will Neville who cracked a superb 25-yarder into the far top corner.

Badshot Lea should probably have had more in normal time, especially when Spurs were down to ten men, with reliable defender Victor Mudonhi forced off injured and all substitutes used.

Finally, in the second minute of added time, substitute Stacey Thripp added the fourth goal with a dipping volley just inside the post.

This Saturday, Badshot Lea travel to Kensington Borough, who are something of an unknown quantity.

Badshot Lea: West; Neville, Nimmo, Osler; Francis, Blake; Hawker, Hutchinson, Hibbert; Thumbwood, Smith. Subs: Lacey, Thripp, Connor (all used), Turner, Blackie.